Welcome to Season Two of Surrendering to the Signs. In this opening episode, host Laura Gates reflects on the deeper meaning behind signs, synchronicities, and, most powerfully, the people who show up on our path at exactly the right moment.

Laura explores how encounters often carry lessons, invitations, and turning points we can only understand in hindsight. From unexpected reunions and uncomfortable interactions to chance meetings on trains and long-term relationships born from unlikely moments, this episode invites listeners to look beyond first impressions and trust that the universe is constantly conspiring on our behalf.

As we step into a new season, Laura offers a gentle reminder that growth doesn’t always come through dramatic awakenings. Sometimes it comes through coffee meetings, missed deadlines, difficult conversations, quiet inner nudges, and moments where listening to the body becomes the most profound act of self-trust.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• Why making it to Season Two is a meaningful milestone
• The many forms signs can take, goosebumps, intuition, inner voices, and people
• How first impressions can block meaningful connection if we let them
• A powerful story of a chance meeting on a train to Glastonbury
• Reflections on meeting soul-aligned collaborators, clients, and lifelong partners
• How surrendering control opens space for guidance and support
• Honoring winter, rest, and seasonal cycles as part of the soul’s rhythm

Resources & Links

Triggers by Marshall Goldsmith

Visit: surrenderingtothesigns.com

Music Featured

The music in each episode of Surrendering to the Signs has been carefully curated to enhance the episode, below is a list of all tracks featured.

List of Music

Beauregard feat Ryvr - 101

Saggie - Easy to Love

Risian - Undertow

Roie Shpigler- Clarity

Wav Two - Sakura

Family Kush- Heavy Summer

In this reflective season finale, Laura looks back on the conversations and transformations that shaped Season One of Surrendering to the Signs.

She shares what she has learned from her guests, from her own life, and from the unexpected signs that have continued to appear along the way, including the story of a small alleyway in Glastonbury that offered a message from her sister, three years after her passing.

This episode speaks to the journey we are all on: learning to trust our intuition, listening for the messages that guide us, and finding the courage to walk the path, even when we can’t yet see the ending.

If you’ve ever wondered: Why am I here? What is my purpose? How do I follow the signs in my life?

This closing reflection offers comfort, clarity, and companionship for that journey.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• Laura’s gratitude for the people who helped bring Season One to life

• Honoring the guests whose stories opened the season’s conversation

• The evolving identity of the podcast and why naming the “mystery” matters

• Why so many of us hesitate to talk about spirituality or intuition openly

• How signs, synchronicities, and subtle nudges guide us toward alignment

• A moving story of Laura’s sister Janice and a message that arrived in Glastonbury

• Dreams, symbols, and the quiet language of the unconscious

• Seeing relationships through the lens of soul contracts and karmic lessons

• Reflections on not having children and the unexpected ways motherhood showed up

• What Season Two will explore: deeper conversations, more seekers, practical guidance, and spacious truth-telling

Resources & Links

Spirit Babies, Walter Makichen

The Surrender Experiment, Michael Singer

The Untethered Soul, Michael Singer

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

The Awakened Mind, Dr. Lisa Miller

Seat of the Soul, Gary Zukav

 The Art of Infinity, The spiritual journey of Albert Einstein by Kieran Fox.

Mind Magic, Dr. James Doty

Music Featured

The music in each episode of Surrendering to the Signs has been carefully curated to enhance the episode, below is a list of all tracks featured.

List of Music

Saggie, Steven Beddall & Jenny Penkin - Easy to Love

101 feat Ryvr - Beauregard

Risian - Undertow

Roie Shpigler - Sakura

Family Kush - Heavy Summer

In this profoundly moving and life-affirming conversation, Laura sits down with Ruud Hopstaken, former healthcare executive, cancer survivor, and now coach, to explore what it truly means to wake up to life.

Ruud shares his extraordinary story: from a high-powered career as vice chair of a major Dutch medical university, to a sudden cancer diagnosis that brought everything to a halt. What followed was not just a physical healing journey, but a spiritual awakening invited him to redefine success, surrender control, and listen deeply to his body and soul.

Together, Laura and Ruud unpack themes of identity, loss, courage, and freedom. This episode is a powerful testament to how even the darkest moments can hold sacred invitations and how surrender can lead to the most profound kind of healing.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

• The pivotal moment when Ruud’s life changed overnight
• How illness became a messenger and teacher, not an enemy
• The experience of losing his stomach and finding wholeness instead
• Why he cried tears of loss, not just joy, after being declared cancer-free
• How the need for identity and achievement can keep us from truly feeling
• The long process of learning to listen to his body’s voice
• Stories of transformation: marathons, illness, healing, swimming with the dolphins,and walking with the Maasai
• Why he believes cancer was his greatest gift and how it led him to guide others

Bio

Ruud Hopstaken is a coach, mentor, and former senior healthcare executive based in the Netherlands. After decades of high-intensity work in leadership and academia, his life took an unexpected turn with a diagnosis of stomach cancer, a journey that transformed how he saw himself, his work, and the world.

Resources & Links

The Work by Byron Katie

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Teachings on somatic wisdom and Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Ruuds website https://www.ruudhopstaken.com/

Or follow his journey across Europe https://www.berlin-to-brussels.com/

Music Featured

The music in each episode of Surrendering to the Signs has been carefully curated to enhance the episode, below is a list of all tracks featured.

List of Music

Saggie, Steven Beddall & Jenny Penkin - Easy to Love

Tamuz Dekel - Evanescent

Sig Howler - A Trip

Oliver Michael - Runaway

Kyle Preston - Cafe de Philosophie

Jozeque - Seal

Adi Goldstein - Ocean Voyage